Boston Marathon bombing victims: Promising lives lost

Steve Almasy, CNN

Updated 2016 GMT (0416 HKT) May 15, 2015

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Photos:Boston bombing: The dead and injured

Martin Richard, 8, was in the second grade and loved the Red Sox. He was the middle of three children and is best known for a school project in which he made a poster with a peace sign and the words "No more hurting people." He was less than 4 feet from the second bomb. He bled to death as his mother leaned over him, begging him to live.

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Photos:Boston bombing: The dead and injured

Lingzi Lu, 23, was a graduate student from China, studying statistics. A gifted musician and public speaker, she was enjoying her time in the United States. She decided to watch the Boston Marathon as a study break. The second bomb sliced her leg open from hip to toe, and she bled to death. Her aunt called her "a beautiful nerd."

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Photos:Boston bombing: The dead and injured

Krystle Campbell, 29, was remembered by her father as his "Princess," but she loved sports and the outdoors and "wasn't a girly girl," he said. She put on big family parties and was close to her brother. She was working as a restaurant manager. She was burned and cut by hot shrapnel from the first bomb and bled to death.

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Photos:Boston bombing: The dead and injured

Sean Collier, 26, grew up in a big "Brady Bunch"-blended family and always wanted to be a police officer. He viewed the world from a moral stance, and felt a strong sense of right and wrong. He loved to race cars with his brother and go on family vacations. He was shot to death in his patrol car on the MIT campus because the Tsarnaev brothers wanted his gun to use in their escape.

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Photos:Boston bombing: The dead and injured

Celeste Corcoran, left, and her daughter, Sydney Corcoran, recovered in the same hospital room. Doctors were able to save Sydney's leg, but Celeste lost both of hers. Sydney recalled how she felt the life drain from her body and believed she was dying. Celeste felt great frustration when she couldn't rush to her daughter's side. "I never forget I'm a double amputee," Celeste said. "There's always a level of discomfort."

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Adrianne Haslet-Davis is a ballroom dancer. She remembers walking through the crowd on Boylston Street, holding hands with her husband, Adam, and feeling happy and in love. Then the bombs went off. Her husband, who is in the military, told her they'd been in a terrorist attack. But the second bomb went off before they could leave. She knew immediately something was wrong with her foot, and could see blood everywhere. She couldn't hear her own screams and thought she was dead. They were dragged into the Forum restaurant, and a first responder recalled hearing her husband apologize to her over and over for bringing her to the event. She testified that he recently checked himself into a Veterans Affairs mental health program.

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Photos:Boston bombing: The dead and injured

Erika Brannock was the last bomb survivor to leave the hospital. She came to the marathon from her home in suburban Maryland to cheer her mother on and was excited about being able to get so close to the finish line. Her sister, Nicole Gross, testified that she recalled pushing Brannock through the crowd so they could get closer. "I said, 'One, two, three, go,' and as soon as I said, 'Go,' the bomb went off," Gross said. Brannock told reporters in 2013 that she saw flashes of orange and yellow light and was knocked to the pavement. She couldn't move her foot and thought she was going to die. She said she's had moments when she was angry with the bombers but "I can't waste my energy being angry. I need to save energy for getting well and for being with people who care about me and want me to get better."

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Jeff Bauman remembers looking down at his legs. "It was just pure carnage. I could see my bones and the flesh sticking out, and I just went into tunnel vision. I thought this is really messed up, this is messed up, that's all I said in my head. This is how it's going to end. This is it. I had a great life. I saw the world. I played sports growing up. I had a lot of friends ... I made peace with myself at that point."

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Heather Abbott was outside the Forum restaurant when the second bomb went off. "I was catapulted through the doors of the restaurant, which was open. I landed in a puddle of chaos and blood and glass. People were running in herds by me, through the restaurant to get to the back exit, away from where the bomb was." Her foot was badly mangled, and she decided to amputate below the knee. She wears a prosthetic with toes and a high heel.

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J.P. Norden, left, and his brother, Paul Norden, did not testify during the trial, preferring to put the bombing behind them. Their mother, Liz, is outspoken in the survivor community.

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Karen Rand McWatters lost a leg -- and one of her best friends. She and Krystle Campbell spent the day laughing and posting selfies on Facebook before heading to the finish line. She was knocked to the ground by the first blast, and heard the second before she could understand what was happening. Her foot was turned in the wrong direction, but she dragged herself toward Campbell. She couldn't see how badly hurt her friend was. "I got close to her head, and we put our faces together. She very slowly said her legs hurt, and we held hands and very shortly after her hand went limp and we never spoke again."

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Mery Daniel, a young mother from Haiti, was attending her second marathon when she was knocked to the pavement. She lost a leg, and the other leg was also damaged. She had pushed herself from ESL classes all the way to medical school, and instead found herself relearning how to walk with a prosthesis. She wears her "Boston Strong" T-shirt proudly.

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Marc Fucarile was at the marathon with friends, and was struck by hot shrapnel from the second bomb. His pants caught fire, and he suffered burns over 90% of his lower body. His belt buckle was so hot, it burned his hand when he tried to undo it. One leg was blown off at the scene, and he's still trying to save the other, but might not win that battle, he said. He's had more skin grafts than he can remember.

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Patrick Downes and Jessica Kensky Downes met when they were interns on Capitol Hill. She lost both legs and was pushed into court in a wheelchair. Her aide dog, Rescue, lay beside her as she testified. "I remember being happy, I remember feeling sunlight on my face. I remember feeling free." And then the bomb went off. Because she is a nurse, she focused on saving her husband. His foot and part of his leg were hanging by a thread. She remembers screaming, and not being able to hear anything. This photo was taken before she decided to amputate her second leg in January. "I wanted to paint my toenails and put my feet in the sand. I wanted all of those things, and to lose my second leg was a gut-wrenching decision."

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Rebekah Gregory was celebrating her birthday weekend at the marathon with family and friends. She remembers coming to after the blast and reaching for her 5-year-old son, Noah. She could see bones protruding from her arm. She also lost a leg below the knee. Like many bomb survivors, she was convinced she was going to die that day. She is using a blade to run again. After she testified, she wrote a note to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on her Facebook page saying she is not afraid of him.

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Roseann Sdoia had run a 5K the day before the marathon. She heard the first bomb and decided to run for it. Then she saw two explosions of white light at her feet. She knew she'd lost a leg before she hit the ground. She saw a severed foot with a sock and remembers asking herself if she wore socks that day. "It was somebody else's foot." She thought she'd rather die than live as an amputee but then considered all the people she'd be leaving behind. So she willed herself to stay conscious and fight.

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Jane Richard, in the pink skirt, lost her leg. She holds the hand of her brother Henry as they walk down Boylston Street with their parents and others after an April 15 ceremony this year. She was standing next to her brother Martin behind a metal barricade when the second bomb went off. Her father, Bill, took one look at Martin, knew he wouldn't make it and focused his efforts on saving Jane. She sang in April at Fenway Park on opening day.

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Mary Jo White and Bill White, right, had gone with son Kevin into the city for lunch and were on their way back to "the T," as Boston's public transportation system is called, when they decided to stop by the finish line. They were just feet away from the first bomb. Bill, a veteran who earned a Purple Heart in Vietnam, lost his leg above the knee. Kevin, who serves as the family spokesman, says his parents, who are in their 70s, don't like to talk about the events of April 15, 2013. He told his local newspaper he "really has no feelings" for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

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Steve Woolfenden, a biomedical researcher, was pushing his son, Leo, in a stroller along Boylston Street. His wife was running the marathon, and they were making their way to the finish line when the first bomb went off. He started to turn the stroller around in the crowd, but the second blast caught them. Woolfenden's leg was severed on the scene. He could see it still in the boot next to him, the tibia protruding. His focus was on Leo and getting him help.

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Leo Woolfenden was lifted from his stroller by a first responder as the boy's father lay on the ground with a severed leg. Leo suffered a skull fracture.

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Story highlights

Three people were killed when two homemade explosives went off at the Boston Marathon

One of the victims was Krystle Campbell, 29, who went to the race every year

Another was 8-year-old Martin Richard, who was known as bright and energetic

One victim was a Chinese national, China's consulate in New York says

(CNN)They were standing near the finish line, cheering the runners in the Boston Marathon. It was a beautiful, cool day when two bombs unleashed chaos and killed three people.

Friends of those killed say they are devastated by the senseless deaths.

The family is heartbroken and still in shock, Patty Campbell said as she tried to read a statement on the family's porch.

Everyone loved Krystle, she said.

"She had a heart of gold. She was always smiling," Patty Campbell said as her son, Billy, clutched her with his right arm.

Krystle's grandmother said the 29-year-old was a special kind of person who nurtured deep friendships.

"Oh, she was a beautiful girl," Lillian Campbell told CNN's Jake Tapper. "She was very happy, outgoing, a hard worker."

Lillian Campbell said her granddaughter even lived with her for a year and a half and was "great with me."

Her granddaughter was always willing to help someone in need, she said.

"And she was, she was just beautiful. She was a fun-loving girl," Campbell said.

Krystle Campbell once worked at Summer Shack, a seafood restaurant in the Boston area that posted a statement on its Facebook page saying she was beloved.

"She was an incredible woman, always full of energy and hard at work, but never too tired to share her love and a smile with everyone," the post said. "She was an inspiration to all of us. Please keep her and her family in your thoughts and prayers."

According to the Boston Globe, Campbell had taken a job with Jimmy's Steer House in Arlington.

The Globe reported that Campbell often went to the see the marathon runners.

"She's been doing it since she was a little girl," Lillian Campbell told the newspaper. "She didn't miss a marathon, watching it at the finish line."

Campbell was a 2001 graduate of Medford High School, the town's mayor, Michael McGlynn, said.

Martin was a terrific athlete, too, Forry said, but he was also a very good student who would help others who were having trouble with homework.

"A quiet kid, but a compassionate kid -- and somebody who was a leader," Forry said.

Martin attended the Neighborhood House Charter School.

He "was a bright, energetic young boy who had big dreams and high hopes for his future," the school said in a statement. "We are heartbroken by this loss."

His father, William Richard, released a statement asking people to "continue to pray for my family as we remember Martin."

A neighbor, Jane Sherman, said that the Richard family is a "typical all-American family" and that Martin and his little brother always loved to play in their yard, no matter the weather.

Richard's mother and sister are recovering from serious injuries sustained in the bombing, the father said.

Lingzi Lu, China

Lu Lingzi, a graduate student at Boston University, was one of three people killed during the bombings at the Boston Marathon on Tuesday.

Like thousands of others, the graduate student from China crowded with friends around the finish line at the Boston Marathon to cheer on the runners.

She had moved to the city in time for the fall semester, making friends and soaking up new experiences.

The marathon was a chance to be a part of an annual ritual so cherished by Bostonians. And so she went to Copley Square with two friends in tow.

They were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The day she died, Lingzi Lu, posted a picture of her breakfast to the Chinese social media website Weibo -- bread and a bowl of fruit.

"My wonderful breakfast," she commented in English with a smiley face emoticon.

Boston University's president announced the graduate student's death in an open letter published on the school's website and confirmed that her friend was wounded.

"Our hearts and thoughts go out to the family and friends of both victims," wrote college President Robert Brown.

Lu had worked hard to achieve. She won an academic scholarship to the Beijing Institute of Technology, where she received accolades for her math skills.

She went on to Boston University to pursue that passion and was working on a master's degree in statistics.

She would have known how slim the chances were that something like this could happen in a crowd of thousands cheering the runners on a sunny day.

Sean Collier, 27, Massachusetts

Even those who barely knew Sean Collier filled a tribute page set up Friday with memories of his easy laugh and ever-present smile, his desire to help others and his motivation to be a good police officer.

While his brother, Andrew, became a machinist in the engine department at Hendrick Motorsports, one of the major NASCAR racing teams, Sean followed a different path.

"Sean was one of these guys who really looked at police work as a calling," MIT Police Chief John DiFava said in a statement posted on the university website. "He was born to be a police officer."

Collier died a police officer, shot to death in his squad car on the MIT campus.

In a statement, his family asked for privacy.

"We are heartbroken by the loss of our wonderful and caring son and brother," the statement said. "Our only solace is that Sean died bravely doing what he committed his life to -- serving and protecting others."

President Barack Obama praised Collier following the conclusion of a daylong manhunt for the second of two marathon bombing suspects, saying he was a dedicated officer.

"We are grateful to him," Obama said.

After the blasts near the finish line of the iconic road race, Collier's slaying further traumatized many in the MIT community who had gotten to know him during his 15 months on the job.

"The loss of Officer Collier is deeply painful to the entire MIT community," MIT President L. Rafael Reif said on the university website.

Ben Artin, an EMS volunteer, told how Collier proposed arranging a social event to help broaden the relationship between the campus police and the emergency service workers.

"Sean was rare in the degree to which, while working for MIT PD, he wanted to socially engage with the students," Artin wrote to CNN, adding that "I hope that we follow through on this proposal as we heal."